Wowee. My ears are still ringing from the decimating decibels I encountered. Philadelphia-based sci-fi thrashers Vektor started out their east coast tour at St. Vitus with Brooklyn’s own Behold…The Arctopus. Both bands I have never seen and was completely floored. Beforehand, I had a great talk with Vektor’s David DiSanto and Frank Chin. You can check that out here.

Behold…The Arctopus consists of a drummer, one guitarist playing a seven string, the other playing a Warr guitar. These guitars have 12-15 strings meant to cover beyond the range of a bass guitar and a standard guitar in one instrument. Quite an amazing sight. Musically, they played all the songs from their latest album, Horrorsenscion. Deluge of Sores and Putrefucktion were highlights for me. The Arctopus is a very free flowing and mercurial band, prone to in-depth improvisations and sporadic tapping rhythms. Their performance was fantastic and I would definitely go see them again. Their album Skullgrid is ridiculous. Check that out.

It was awesome talking with Frank and David before the show. I was very anxious to see the band live. I got a chance to meet them all through the course of the night. Really outstanding individuals. Recently signed to Earache Records, Vektor’s lyrical topics combine elements of sci-fi and philosophy. As musicians, they give nods to both progressive and thrash metal. This blend really speaks to me, as I find thrash sloppy at times and the genre as a whole I never really got into. Their technicality however, really kept my ears engaged. This just might be my gateway into thrash.

They were able to play a little longer than anticipated, which was a big plus. Outer Isolation is their most recent album and I recognized the title track, Tetrastructural Minds, and Venus Project. From Black Future came Forests of Legend, Deoxyribonucleic Acid, and Black Future.

There you have it cretins. My outing to Saint Vitus was a blast and a half. I got to see two incredible bands I’ve never seen perform before in a dark metal bar on Valentines Day. It seems I really do love metal.

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